Tigers easily crush Nationals, 11-1

Detroit Tigers’ Jhonny Peralta (27) and designated hitter Victor Martinez (41) are congratulated by teammate Alex Avila, center, after they scored on a Ramon Santiago double to Washington Nationals left fielder Bryce Harper during the second inning. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

DETROIT — For once, the Tigers may not worry about Alex Avila being a little nicked up.

Despite a sore hip putting a little hitch in his giddy-up, Detroit’s oft-bruised catcher came up with another big game Wednesday, as the Tigers won, 11-1.

“It is a concern. His hip’s been bothering him. I hope that it bothers him in the exact amount that it’s been bothering him the last couple of games. He’s staying on the ball for us, and has driven in some runs,” joked manager Jim Leyland, noting that he would watch Avila, but is happy his bat is coming around.

“He’s starting to do the things we know he’s capable of doing. I like that. For him to hit doubles and homers is good tonic for us, because if he hits a single for us, unless there’s a man on third or second, he’s probably not going to score from first, he’s not going to steal a base. To produce runs, he has to do what he’s been doing recently.

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“If he starts hitting the ball in the gap and over the fence for us, that’d be really good.”

Avila blasted his eighth home run of the season — his second in as many days — drove in two runs, and raised his average to the Mendoza Line.

As far as the hip? “Don’t worry about it,” Avila said.

In July, he’s hitting .269 with four doubles, 19 RBI and three home runs. The first two of those three totals constitute half or more of his season output in those categories.

“Yeah, well, Alex can hit. He hasn’t done so, or didn’t do so earlier this year, but it’s just a matter of time and confidence. He’s seeing the ball,” Tigers starter Justin Verlander said. “You saw him start the All-Star Game a couple of years ago, and hit .300, with a bunch of homers and a bunch of ribbys. So he can do it. He can perform at this level. When you know a guy can, it’s more of a ‘when,’ instead of a ‘what if?’ ”

It’s a fifth straight win for the Tigers (61-45), who continue to hold on to a slim lead the American League Central. For the Nationals (52-56), it’s a 30th time this season they’ve been held to one or fewer runs.

“Well, now that this is over, people looked at this as a casual couple of days, and it’s not like that. If you beat (Stephen) Strasburg and (Gio) Gonzalez, you’ve done something. They’re both really good. I’m proud of our guys, because I thought we had really good at-bats, and I think (hitting coach) Lloyd McClendon ... gave them good advice, and told them they needed to really grind their at-bats out,” Leyland said. “You might go 0-for-3 with two strikeouts and a pop out, but the one hit you get might be the one that wins the game.

“The other common denominator with those guys is, you gotta pitch good, or you got no chance.”

That process didn’t start so well for Verlander.

After two rocky starts, the Tigers ace loaded the bases before he got an out Wednesday, before wiggling out of the jam, and pitching effectively for five more innings.

“My stuff was pretty good, but I was obviously erratic,” he said. “I knew after three batters, my control wasn’t pinpoint. I just had to grind and make pitches when I had to.”

It helped that the Tigers provided him plenty of run support.

The Tigers batted around against Gonzalez in the second inning, getting doubles from Jhonny Peralta and Ramon Santiago (2 RBI), and home runs from Avila and Torii Hunter to post Verlander to a 5-1 lead.

Gonzalez was gone before the Tigers could bat around against him a second time, knocked out of the game by five straight singles in the fourth, making it a 9-1 game. Detroit sent 11 men to the plate before the inning was over, adding a 10th run on Hernan Perez’s RBI single off Ross Ohlendorf.

It’s the 13th time already this season that the Tigers have scored in double digits, after doing it just eight times last year.

After allowing the first three batters of the game to reach base, Verlander worked out of a bases-loaded jam of his own creation in the first inning, allowing just one run on Jayson Werth’s sacrifice fly.

He’d match his season high with five walks, but allow just four total hits.

If Torii Hunter had given in to that little selfish imp that sometimes sits on his shoulder, he might have been talking about his first career cycle after Wednesday’s game, rather than falling just shy for the second time this season.

“I’ve come close several times in my career. Every time I have a single to go or a double to go,” said Hunter, who had four hits, including two doubles, a home run and a single, on Wednesday. “If I need the single, I hit a double, another double or a homer. It just never works out. I had a chance in Cleveland and here this year, twice, and I didn’t capitalize on it. I suck.”

He had a chance to get the elusive triple to complete the cycle in his final at-bat Wednesday, lacing a shot to the right-field corner. It scored Ramon Santiago from second. But Alex Avila, on first at the time, obeyed the stop sign from third-base coach Tom Brookens, and put the brakes on at third base.

Hunter, who’d been digging hard for third, had to put on the brakes, as well, and was thrown out as he tried to scramble back to second.

“I felt really bad after. I really wasn’t, kind of the moment of the game I wasn’t. I wish I did, for sure. I would have definitely gotten thrown out but I wouldn’t have cared at that point. I felt really bad coming back in the dugout. When I saw him coming around, I stopped and I got to third, I was like, ‘oh, crap,’ ” Avila said.

“I was running hard. I couldn’t go any faster than that. I thought maybe I had a good enough jump off the ball because I knew Werth wasn’t going to be able to catch it so I was able to get a good jump, and I thought maybe I had a good enough jump to where I could score. As soon as I saw Brookie put the stop sign up, as fast as I was going, it’s not very hard to stop.”

For his part, manager Jim Leyland declared Brookens’ decision the right call (especially in a blowout game), but Hunter jokingly insisted he should have been selfish.

“It was very difficult, man. I was just going to keep going no matter what. I saw Avila slowing down before I even hit second base but I was like, forget that, I’m going to keep running and it didn’t work out. I knew Brookie couldn’t have known because he held him up early. I should have been selfish. It’s not in me, though,” Hunter laughed.

“I would have pushed Avila off the bag and I would have stayed on, pushed him off — ‘Tag him!’ He didn’t know either. Brookie didn’t know. What can you do? Hopefully I get another chance before I retire. In about 10 years.”

Matthew B. Mowery covers the Tigers for Digital First Media. Read his “Out of Left Field” blog at opoutofleftfield.blogspot.com.